Centimeter-scale suspended photonic crystal mirrors

Abstract

Demand for lightweight, highly reflective and mechanically compliant mirrors for optics experiments has seen a significant surge. In this aspect, photonic crystal (PhC) membranes are ideal alternatives to conventional mirrors, as they provide high reflectivity with only a single suspended layer of patterned dielectric material. However, due to limitations in nanofabrication, these devices are usually not wider than 300 $\mu$m. Here we experimentally demonstrate suspended PhC mirrors spanning areas up to 10$\times$10 mm. We overcome limitations imposed by the size of the PhC and measure reflectivities greater than 90% on 56 nm thick mirrors at a wavelength of 1550 nm -- an unrivaled performance compared to PhC mirrors with micro scale diameters. These structures bridge the gap between nano scale technologies and macroscopic optical elements.

References in corpus (10)

• Cavity Optomechanics
• Advanced LIGO
• A sub-40 mHz linewidth laser based on a silicon single-crystal optical cavity
• Breaking the Loss Limitation of On-chip High-confinement Resonators
• Flat Dielectric Grating Reflectors with High Focusing Power
• Mechanical Resonators for Quantum Optomechanics Experiments at Room Temperature
• Dissipation in ultrahigh quality factor SiN membrane resonators
• High-finesse Fabry-Perot cavities with bidimensional Si${}_3$N${}_4$ photonic-crystal slabs
• High-reflectivity, high-Q micromechanical membranes via guided resonances for enhanced optomechanical coupling
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